Dr. Saeb Erekat on the illegal Israeli settlements, including Amona

It is not up to the Israeli government, or to an Israeli court, to define whether a particular settlement is legal or not. All Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestine are illegal under international law. From Gilo to Efrat and from Ariel to Amona, every one of the over 200 Israeli settlements in our occupied country has the same status. What the Israeli government is doing is not a change of policy but a reaffirmation of its will to bury the two-state solution, perpetuating the systematic denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. 

The international community has several tools that is not using in order to end the Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestine. As we are marking 50 years of Israeli occupation, “strong statements” against settlement construction by their own haven’t worked. In fact, Israel has been able to secure the presence of over 650,000 settlers in Occupied Palestine. The international community has the responsibility to halt all ties with Israeli settlements, including by banning settlement products and by divesting from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. Once again, we call upon the international community to take concrete actions in order to protect the rights of the Palestinian people and to save the two-state solution.